We’re overclocking the Core i5-12600KF CPU up to 5500 MHz in 5 minutes or less using the ASUS ROG Strix Z690-A Gaming WiFi D4 motherboard and an EK-AIO 360 cooler.

I’ll speed run you through the BIOS settings and provide some notes and tips along the way. Please note that this is for entertainment purposes only and most certainly not the whole picture. Please don’t outright copy these settings and apply to your system. If you want to learn how to overclock this system, please check out the longer SkatterBencher video.

Alright, let’s do this.

Core i5-12600KF Overclock Settings

When you’ve entered the BIOS, go to the Ai Tweaker menu.

Set Ai Overclock Tuner to XMP II. This will enable the XMP profile and let our memory run at its high frequency specification.

Set ASUS MultiCore Enhancement to Enabled – Remove All Limits. This will unleash the Turbo Boost 2.0 power limits and allow for an unlimited time at maximum performance.

Set Performance Core Ratio to By Core Usage. Now we will configure our dynamic P-core overclock with as goal to maximize the performance in a wide variety of workloads ranging from light single threaded workloads to heavy all core workloads.

• Set 1-Core Ratio Limit to 55
• Set 2-Core Ratio Limit to 55
• Set 3-Core Ratio Limit to 54
• Set 4-Core Ratio Limit to 54
• Set 5-Core Ratio Limit to 53
• Set 6-Core Ratio Limit to 52

Enter the Specific Performance Core sub-menu. In this menu we will specify which P-cores are allowed to boost to our maximum frequency of 5.5 GHz.

• Set Performance Core0 Specific Ratio Limit to 54
• Set Performance Core1 Specific Ratio Limit to 54
• Set Performance Core2 Specific Ratio Limit to 55
• Set Performance Core3 Specific Ratio Limit to 55
• Set Performance Core4 Specific Ratio Limit to 54
• Set Performance Core5 Specific Ratio Limit to 54

Leave the Specific Performance Core sub-menu.

Set Efficient Core Ratio to By Core Usage. Now we will set a dynamic E-core overclock.

• Set Efficient 1-Core Ratio Limit to 40
• Set Efficient 2-Core Ratio Limit to 40
• Set Efficient 3-Core Ratio Limit to 40
• Set Efficient 4-Core Ratio Limit to 39

Enter the Specific Efficient Core sub-menu. We will pro forma set the E-core cluster maximum ratio to 40X.

• Set Efficient Core0 Group0 Specific Ratio Limit to 40

Leave the Specific Efficient Core sub-menu

Enter the AVX Related Controls sub-menu. Here we will configure the AVX negative ratio offset such that when AVX workloads occur our system will sufficiently reduce the clock frequency.

• Set AVX2 Ratio Offset to per-core Ratio limit to User Specify
• Set AVX2 Ratio Offset to 5

Leave the AVX Related Controls sub-menu

Set CPU Core/Cache Voltage to Adaptive Mode. This will make sure the CPU core and ring voltage will scale according to its needs depending on the current CPU frequency. The adaptive voltage will be mapped against our OC ratio. This is the highest set ratio, so in our case 55X. Between the OC ratio and the highest default ratio, for the 12600KF that’s 49X, the voltage will be interpolated. So, the actual voltage will scale with the actual frequency.

• Set Additional Turbo Mode CPU Core Voltage to 1.45

Then save and exit the BIOS.

Core i5-12600KF Overclock Performance Improvement

To make sure everything is working as intended we re-run some benchmarks and check the performance increase compared to the default settings. Higher is better; and all are higher. We get up to 26% more performance than at default.

When running Prime 95 Small FFTs with AVX enabled, the average CPU P-core clock is 4936 MHz and average CPU E-core clock is 3900 MHz with 1.246 volts. The average CPU temperature is 89 degrees Celsius and the average CPU package power is 221.5 watts.

When running Prime 95 Small FFTs with AVX disabled, the average CPU P-core clock is 5200 and average CPU E-core clock is 3900 MHz with 1.333 volts. The average CPU temperature is 90 degrees Celsius and the average CPU package power is 224.3 watts.

The highest Core Clock reported in the operating system is 5500 MHz.

And that’s it, thanks for reading and see you next time!